It’s the coolest restaurant in London, but what makes the Clove Club so special?

T
here have been two noisy restaurant openings so far this year. The first was
Balthazar in the West End. The owner, Keith McNally, fretted from table to
table, visibly anxious despite his 30 years as one of the most important
restaurateurs in Manhattan.

The second was the Clove Club, the first permanent restaurant from the chef
Isaac McHale — one-time member of the itinerant chef collective the Young
Turks — and his front-of-house charmers, Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith.
Over the past three years, the early-thirtysomethings have gone from
occasional supper-club hosts to pop-up darlings, running a hit temporary
space, Upstairs at the Ten Bells, in east London.

The Bells has become permanent, but McHale and co have moved on. As a kind of
benediction, on the last night of their run there, 30 chefs from the World’s
50 Best Restaurants list turned up for dinner. McHale describes them as “an
ultimate